Westside : Rail Station Plan May Boost Neighborhood

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is hoping that a redevelopment project will attract more passengers to a station it plans to build on Hollywood Boulevard near Western Avenue--a depressed location where several hundred units of housing were destroyed in the Northridge earthquake.

The MTA is working with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and the Los Angeles Housing Department to improve the neighborhood, which has been a haven for drugs, prostitution and gangs, said John Given, an MTA planner and project manager.

The agencies plan to build up to 120 units of housing--much of it affordable--a child care center, a parking garage, a plaza leading to the entrance of the train station and space set aside for retail shops.